Axis

Words Beginning with B

Bandwidth

Bridge

Useful structure to access, to connect, to associate or to shift between different kinds of information or knowledge.

Words Beginning with C

Catachresis

Poetic injunction through misuse or non-sense metaphor.

Catalyst

An agent that precipitates an event or change.

Co-agency

The synergy of multiple agents and agendas, esp. in the form of creative intervention towards a common purpose.

Co-creative

noun. A creative person or professional that explicitly positions themselves as a creative collaborator.
adj. Involving collective, common or distributed imagination and original ideas between a group of people

Collaboration

A Choice to engage in collective action with people to produce or create something.

Collaborative practice

A creative practice that explicitly works through and as collective actions.

Common

Shared by and belonging to a group, community, society or culture.

Consensus

A collective or collaborative agreement. An agreement by majority esp. in relation to a group of people.

Contagious Optimism

Continuum

This word may be useful in developing ideas that resist a simple structuralist or 'black and white' opposition between meanings

Creation

What some people call ‘the environment’ others may call ‘Creation’ but is the meaning of these two terms inherently contradictory?

Convivir

It is a Spanish word. Verb from Latin “convivĕre” that in English means “con” with and “vivĕre” to live, that is “to live together” “to coexist” “To live with” and “being-with” (Jean-Luc Nancy, 2000) as well as it suppose that the relationship which another being arise as a legitimate other in coexistence with oneself.

Words Beginning with D

Design

Design synergy

Disposable product

Disposable product Describes a product that is intended to be thrown away after use: for example disposable nappies or disposable camera.

Droefting or rather Drøfting

A Norwegian word meaning the process of discussing something.
1. It's the kind of discussion you would have in a written paper or a formal gathering, in which an description, analysis and synthesis is core.
2. Of course, this is a translation, whereas drøfting is a compound notion of which people would catch the feel and sense.
3. And this aspect of the concept probably cannot be translated (I think this is something that Maziar Raein would think about as texture).
4. So my translation scales the concept, but does not convey its texture. Which one should keep in mind since often 'drøfting' would afford a
concluding decision.
5. In this connection, it is important to keep in mind that in its Norse roots – including Icelandic – the word for thing is the same as for council,
in all Scandinavian languages.
6. The regularities of nature and human regulations are phenomenologically unified by the place, rather than by dialectical thinking.

Dumbing up

Dumbing up is a term used to describe the strategy of getting students interested in a topic by introducing it in a deliberately simplistic and possibly entertaining, intriguing or controversial manner. The ultimate aim with 'dumbing up' is that students will engage with the topic in great depth by the end of a unit, module or course.
A deliberate counter to the pejorative term 'dumbing down', the strategy is derived from the belief that it is the student's ultimate knowledge at the end of the course that is important, not the amount of information dumped on them at the start. See 'Abandoning History' http://www.jonathanbaldwin.co.uk/assets/AbandoningHistory.pdf" class="wiki wikinew text-danger tips">http://www.jonathanbaldwin.co.uk/assets/AbandoningHistory.pdf for an account of its use in which a 'one-book book list' appeared to result in students reading more books than had been the case when presented with a traditional multi-title list.

Dyslexia

Here are some definitions to help you see the many different ways dyslexia has been categorised:a. Dyslexia is a complex neurological condition that occurs in approximately 4% of the population, and which primarily affects acquisition and use of written language, memory and organisational skills. It is a legally recognised disability, and there is strong evidence that supports a genetic causation of the condition. (C.H. Singleton, National Working Party on Dyslexia in Higher Education).b. A person is dyslexic if in some way he/she cannot handle words at a level consistent with his/her level of intelligence…..(M. Critchley, 1970 The Dyslexic Child. London. William Heinman Medical Books)c. Unexpected failure to read, write and spell, despite adequate socio-emotional circumstances and adequate education (Dr Beverley Steffert, Visual Spatial Ability and Dyslexia: a research project. 1999).d. …an unusual balance of strengths…(T.R. Miles, 1993 Dyslexia: The Pattern of Difficulties. London: Whurr)e. Dyslexic children are identifiable as those who have failed to learn the way teachers traditionally teach (L. Dickinson and H. Banks in Dyslexic Learners: A holistic approach to support).f. Dyslexia is not a disability, but an alternative form of cognition which may be associated with visual spatial ability (J. Graves, Visual Spatial Ability and Dyslexia: a research project. 1999).g. Geschwind and Galaburda postulate that the brain compensates for deficits by developing other areas of cognitive processing, whereas Gardner and Newton suggest that there are many cognitive styles, each of which privileges a particular processing protocol: an individual cognitive style is likened to the individuality say, of the fingerprint (I. Padget, Visual Spatial Ability and Dyslexia 1999).

Words Beginning with E

Ecological Footprint

This relates to the extent of the environmental 'burden' that humans place upon the ecosystem.

Emergence

A revealing of something previously unseen or known.

Enaction

To action an idea, concept, plan or purpose.

Enkratic

As opposed to akratic (from akrasia), meaning self-controlled.

Entredonneur

This is a neologism that can enhance ethical practices in business and elsewhere.

Ergonomics / Human factors

The scientific study of people and their working conditions, especially done in order to improve effectiveness. Is about ensuring a good fit between people, the things they do, the objects they use and the environments in which they work, travel and play.

Ethical

Relating to beliefs in actions.

Ethical expert

Someone who has engaged in a process of reflecting on their actions, found transparency in their assumptions and then re-connected their actions and beliefs to form a type of knowledge-action.

Eudemonia

A choice to act for and with good-spirit, with presumption that such acts will bring about future happiness and will-to-happiness.

Eunoia

Beautiful thinking.

Evolution

The ongoing and continued process of flux, diversification and change of both nature and artifice, society and thought.

Words Beginning with G

Words Beginning with H

Haptic / háptico (Spanish)

Habitable

Someone being "habitable" feels happy to doing or showing their habits to other people.

Holding Pattern

Image:boeing737.jpgA Holding Pattern (see Barth,T & Raein, M 2007 in The Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, December Issue, 2007) is an airport landing term that refers to a circular, or other flight path of indefinite duration. When traffic is dense, pilots are commonly ordered to maintain a 'holding pattern' before being given permission to land. The term can also be used to describe the provisional state of mind that designers tend to adopt when faced with uncertainty (e.g. the many possibilities that are implicit in a new client’s problem, or brief). What is 'held in a stack' is a number of possible, unspoken entrepreneurial responses. These may relate to different possible scenarios, including the relationships between client, user and designer. By adopting a secret mental 'holding pattern' of possible responses, the designer gains more time to make a professionally informed strategic decision that is unhindered by discussion. (see also Extreme Programming)

Words Beginning with I

Iki

'IKI' is a Japanese word that is difficult to define in English. Literally, it means the frisson (tension) that emerges when opposites encounter one another. People have used the words 'fresh', 'conquering', 'sophistication', 'elegance' and 'esprit' in their attempts to explain the concept. It can be used to refer to the seductiveness and sex appeal in a product. The Flotilla Network

Inging

Interference Pattern

Discussed recently at the M21 workshop. This synergy occurs when a person enters a discussion and adds a positive influence thus creating an outcome not foreseen previously. It comes from a piece of textile where two colours or interweaving patterns create a third, unexpected pattern.

Words Beginning with J

Jeong

This is an East Asian word describing strong, special affinities

Words Beginning with K

Kansei

Kansei (感性?) is a Japanese word that covers the meanings of sensitivity, sensibility, and intuition in English and is akin to the German concept of Ästhetik.
Researchers have proposed three major definitions for its applicability in psychology and design. cited from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansei_Studies

Words Beginning with L

Lemkinise

This neologism verb means "to introduce new concepts by designing new words"

Linguistic relativism

The idea that it is language that enables us to have thoughts.

Words Beginning with M

MetaDesign

This term is used in different ways.

Metanoia

Rhetorical poetic trope "radical change or conversion"

Model

Something which makes the general specific.Or, ...the concept of 'model' is useful because it is a way of understanding complex things; a configuration and a construct that enables us to understand the difficult by providing a link between the general and the specific, the simple and the complex. A painting could be a model. Installations work through models: there could be a photograph, a video, an object and they make the piece together. Like scientists, artists and designers make models all the time. They are fictional approximations, or mediators of reality.

Words Beginning with N

Narrative

A way of looking at something that is shaped into a particular framework.

Neologism

Words Beginning with O

Ontogenesis

Study of individual features of behaviour, system or organism in development from infancy to maturity.

Ontopoiesis

Life as active, integrated and conscious being-making or poetic-being.

Words Beginning with P

Phronesis.

This brings together 'theory' and 'practice' in a new way. It refers to a type of wise of action that is based on experience and understanding, rather than on being forced by a particular model or theory.

Words Beginning with Q

Words Beginning with R

Research

This term is provocative for many academics in art, design, and other creative disciplines for two main reasons. For one thing the idea of 'research' within academia has a long history of association with a 'truth-centred', rather than with an 'outcome-centred' approach to practice. Secondly, it derives from a (Middle French) word that emphasises an exploration of a prior state of affairs, say, to question an existing, or agreed 'truth'. On the other hand, many 'creatives' tend to identify and/or qualify their responsible practices more in terms of 'new information' using the logic of discovery and/or innovation. (For example, the idea of 'invention' does not literally conform to the idea of 'research').

Words Beginning with S

Words Beginning with T

Tetrahedron (noun), (plural; 'tetrahedra')

A tetrahedron is a polyhedron made of four triangular faces. It can be helpful for visualising relations between key players in the writing of design-related texts. image:Tetraeder-Animation.gif

Tapinosis

Rhetorical poetic trope "showing rather than telling".

Words Beginning with U

User empathy

As defined by Socially Responsive Design(ers) (Gamman, Gisslason, Raein, Thorpe – See Design Against Crime; http://www.designagainstcrime.com/ or http://www.sociallyresponsivedesign.com/blog/) as the ability of a designer to reflect and understand the emotional, intellectual or procedural qualities that a user experiences. This is reflected in the experience, process or / and the object of design in order to place a user within the context of belonging to a sub-culture of usage and a community of like experiences. Moreover, it "situates" a user within a design milieu and allows for them to manoeuvre through the "collections" of design experience.